One Night With the Shifter

by Theresa Meyers

  “No catch.”

  “There’s always a catch when a good-looking guy brings you food to work.”

  Ty gave her a devastating grin that made her stomach do a somersault. “Just wanted a chance to talk. You were the one who suggested we get to know each other better, right?”

  She nodded her head. “True.” She took another bite. No use in the lunch going to waste, and from long experience she knew it wouldn’t taste half as good once it had gotten cold. One glance at his container revealed half his lunch was already gone. “You wolfed that down, didn’t you?”

  Ty choked and launched into a coughing fit.

  She thumped him on the back. “You okay?”

  He nodded, his eyes watering a bit, as he continued to cough. When he spoke again, his voice was ragged and rough. “Yeah. Something went down the wrong way.”

  * * *

  Smooth move, Romeo, Ty chastised himself. Maybe talking her into extra protection was going to be harder than he thought.

  “Jess, I had another reason for bringing you lunch.”

  She polished off the last bite of cheesecake and smiled sweetly. “Thought so. The cheesecake was over the top for lunch by just a drop.”

  “I’m trying to be serious.”

  Her smile faded. “You’re not going to ask me to marry you, are you, because I don’t know if—”

  He grabbed her hand between his and interrupted her. “No. It’s not that. I’ve got some business I need to take care of that might take me out of town for a while.”

  Jess pulled her hand away and sat back in her chair and sighed, then rubbed her index finger up and down right between her brows. “See, this is what I was worried about. You’re going to be one of those guys whose job doesn’t let him stay around home much. Kind of hard to build a relationship on that.”

  She was not going to make this easy on him. “I’ve got a friend I want to watch over you.”

  She gave a heavy sigh. “I’ve got four brothers. Don’t you think that’s enough watching over for anybody?”

  “This is different. He’s a security specialist.”

  She frowned. “Security specialist?”

  “If I didn’t think it was important, I wouldn’t even ask you to consider it.”

  “What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

  Ty groaned. “Okay, you know those vampires in Seattle?”

  Jess shot up out of her chair. “Oh, God. You’re not a vampire, are you?”

  Ty stood, too. “No! But you know those guys at the bar? They were. And they’ve got a grudge against me. I don’t want them thinking they can use you to get to me.”

  Jess shifted her weight to her other foot. “Well, it’s kind of a strange request, but sure, I guess—”

  Riley’s panicked voice broke into his thoughts. You better get back here. Something’s going down.

  Let Crawford take care of it.

  There was no response.

  Riley?

  Nothing.

  Shit.

  “Are you okay? You don’t look—”

  Ty grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. “We gotta go. Can you call in sick this afternoon?”

  She stumbled trying to keep up with him. “What? Wait. No. Where are you going?”

  “My gut is telling me I need to get to Riley. Now.”

  Chapter 10

  Jess didn’t mince words. Family was everything and the look on Ty’s face told her he wasn’t joking. Riley was in trouble. She bustled into the school office, talked with her principal about her family emergency and arranged for a substitute.

  “How do you know something’s wrong with Riley?” she demanded as they climbed into Ty’s truck and rumbled out of the school parking lot. It had all happened so fast. Him swooping in and whisking her away in front of God and Mrs. Mayberry. Heart racing from Ty’s dashing entrance into her classroom, his nearness and worry for her brother, Jess wiped her damp palms down the leg of her slacks.

  “Told you, gut feeling.”

  “Do you have any other powers besides ESP?”

  He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, his jaw jumping. “Look, there are things I’d like to tell you about how I know things, how I can tell what’s going to happen, but you’re going to have to just trust me.”

  His words were said with such conviction that Jess believed him. “Why?”

  “Because as big and numerous as your brothers are, they’ve never had to deal with the kind of stuff I see every day. And your little brother is right in the thick of it.”

  A chill that prickled her skin into goose bumps caused her to zip up her hoodie a little higher. “Is this some super-secret military thing?”

  “You think I’d tell you even if it were?”

  Jess eyed him speculatively and settled back into the bench seat as they headed out of town. “I suppose not.” They slowed to a crawl through the one street that constituted downtown Sinclair. Half the time Jess thought the only reason they kept the speed limit at twenty miles an hour was just to force people to slow down and take a look. Mostly antique shops, a bakery, a bead shop, a florist, a candy shop, a restaurant and a hair salon, downtown Sinclair hung close to the water’s edge. Main Street paralleled the bends of the shore. Even though it wasn’t even the holidays yet, merchants were already putting up twinkle lights along the edges of their signs and awnings. City workers were up on ladders putting lights into the small trees along either side of the street.

  “Open the glove box, would you?”

  Jess did and was stunned by the heavy-looking black handgun and ammunition nestled there. “What’s that doing in there?”

  “Couldn’t bring it into the school,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Jess stared at him. “You carry a gun?”

  Ty nodded. “Know how to load it?”

  Jess nodded. She didn’t know the specifics, but she’d seen Davis do it enough times as he cleaned his guns at home; it couldn’t be that difficult, could it?

  She tried to flip the gun to the side, hoping the chamber the bullets slipped into would fling open.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to open the chamber to put the bullet in it.”

  Ty frowned. “You have no clue, do you?”

  “Not a lot of call to load a gun in the sixth-grade classroom,” she shot back.

  “That long black cartridge in the glove box is already loaded. Put that in the hollow end of the grip, bullet tips facing forward.”

  Jess pulled the cartridge and tipped the gun up to look in the handle.

  The truck wavered slightly, making her glance up at him in alarm. “What was that for?”

  “Watch where you’re pointing it! Point at the floor.”

  Her cheeks heated. “Sorry.” She pivoted her hold making sure it was pointing at the floor before she slipped the cartridge into the handle. “There. Done.”

  “Good. Put it on the seat.” Jess did as he asked and closed the glove box.

  An awkward silence filled the small space between them in the cab of the truck. It was obvious to her he was concentrating—his eyes were intense and focused as he drove, the playful smile he’d had earlier completely erased.

  Jess dug into her purse looking for a lip balm and realized in her rush she’d left her phone at school in her desk. She glanced at him. “I need to go back. I left my phone.”

  “We’ll get it later.”

  “The school will be locked later. What if I need to call my brothers to come?”

  He glanced at her, and the laser-like look he gave her cut straight through her. “Time is critical. We can’t go back. If you need a phone, use mine.”

  Jess pressed her lips together in a firm line. It anno
yed her that he was talking to her like her older brothers did. Perhaps she needed to add to her list of pros and cons. Ty had been thoughtful to bring her lunch. That was a pro. But it was counteracted by the fact that he’d just acted like her brothers. Definitely a con. The fact that he carried a loaded gun around with him so casually didn’t help her nerves any. But then Davis did, too, as part of his job, so perhaps she was being a bit too judgmental.

  She frowned as they headed east. “Aren’t we going to the military hospital?”

  “No.”

  His short answers weren’t enough to scratch her curiosity itch. “Is it that special military medical unit?”

  He didn’t even reply, just stared hard ahead.

  “Do you know what’s happened—”

  He glared at her. “Do you always talk this much?”

  She frowned. “I tend to talk more when I’m nervous. Not knowing where you’re going or what’s happened to your brother and having to load a gun can do that to a girl.”

  He grunted. “Fair enough. But save the questions. If I could tell you, I would.”

  “But then you’d have to kill me, right?”

  His gaze said her attempt at levity had fallen flat. Fine. She’d always thought she admired the strong, silent type, but this was ridiculous. Without conversation to distract her unsettled emotions, her mind started to come up with all sorts of wild scenarios. She glanced at the loaded gun beside her. What if this was an elaborate ruse? What if he was lying and her brother wasn’t hurt?

  Jess shook her head. No, Riley seemed to trust him implicitly. Paul wouldn’t have left her alone with him at the house if he’d sensed anything wrong with Ty. But still, it gave her doubts about the man. What if he wasn’t anything like he seemed to be? What if this Mr. Nice Guy thing on the surface was all just a cover-up for who he really was? She shifted uneasily in her seat and tried to focus instead on the trees as they drove farther away from Sinclair.

  After a half hour, they pulled off the paved road and onto a gravel track that seemed to meander into the heart of the forest. “Kind of out of the way for a medical facility,” she muttered.

  Ty pulled the truck up to a locked gate, grabbed the gun, pulled it back, making it click, then looked her straight in the eye. “Stay here.”

  Jess wasn’t about to argue. The tension in his shoulders and strained look on his face would have been enough to let her know their situation was dangerous. He climbed out and opened the gate, then stared up the road, gun at the ready, for a few seconds before he tucked the gun in back of his jeans against the small of his back.

  “Looks clear here.” He climbed back into the truck and kept going up the hill. The road was only one car wide and Jess stared down into the steep drop-off on her side. She clutched the armrest in her door and the edge of her seat tightly. “Don’t see how you could get an ambulance up here.”

  “Don’t need to. That’s why we have a helipad.”

  That didn’t make the situation any less nerve-racking. They came into a wide clearing. Ty pulled the truck into the gravel parking area beside the square area bordered by four squat buildings that looked like forest-service log cabins and killed the engine. He hopped out of the truck and then hurried around and opened her door. Jess was touched by his manners until she realized it wasn’t manners at all, but precaution that had motivated him. He grabbed her hand hard and looked at her with dead serious written all over his face.

  “There’s something off,” he whispered low. “Stick with me. Stay quiet.” He pulled the big black gun from the back of his jeans and held it in his other hand.

  Panic welled up in Jess’s throat, making it impossible to speak. She nodded instead, suddenly thankful for the sureness of his grip. Jess was impressed at how quickly and quietly a guy of his size could move. He pulled her with him along the back edge of one building, then put his finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet, as he glanced around the building’s edge, gun at the ready.

  Jess had the uncomfortable sensation of being in one of those war video games the boys in her class loved. Her heart thudded hard in her chest, making it difficult to hear anything other than the hard thump-thump-thump.

  He neared a door that was ajar and slipped inside, bringing her along with him. Inside was a living area with a couch and TV, table and small kitchen. It would have been plain and simple, but comfortable, had it not been in complete shambles. It looked as if a thief had slipped in and torn the place apart. Jess gasped.

  “Crawford. Where the hell are you?” Ty whispered harshly.

  “Who’s Crawford?” Jess whispered back. He didn’t answer and instead pushed her behind him, up against the wall, as he kicked open the door to the bedroom, gun out in front of him, ready to fire.

  Ty shouted a string of curses and slammed his fist into the wall, putting a hole in the log wall. Jess jumped back, eyeing the spot. She’d known Ty looked strong, but clearly he had more power than she thought.

  “They took him. Damn it. They took him!” He tucked the gun back in the waistband of his jeans.

  “Him who?” Jess asked as she dared a peek into the bedroom. The bed was ripped apart.

  “Riley.”

  Her anger lit like a fuse. “Wait a minute. What was Riley doing here? You told me he was in a top military medical facility. This—” she gestured to the cabin “—is not a medical facility. What kind of game are you playing?”

  Ty grabbed her upper arms and gave her a look that speared right through her, chilling her to the bone. “Look, I don’t have time to explain it to you right now if I want to save your brother. You’re just going to have to trust me. Stay here. Stay quiet. I’ll be right back.”

  Jess was too stunned and sputtering mad to do more than stare at his broad back as he headed out the door. It took her a moment to recover from the surreal situation. She looked at the chaos around her feet. “Someone might as well start picking up this place.”

  First she set a folding camp chair back upright, then picked up the pieces of glass from a broken picture frame. For a second Jess thought she was seeing things. A wisp of smoke curled up from the floor. Maybe something was on fire. It started to grow denser, turning solid into a pair of men’s Dr. Marten sboots and black military fatigues. She accidentally cut herself on the shards in her hand as she closed her fingers in a reflexive grip and looked up at the stranger with piercing blue eyes who stared at her.

  His pupils grew wide, nearly swallowing the blue as his gaze flicked to the bright red blood welling up on her hand. “Well, well. What do we have here?”

  “My girlfriend.” Ty’s voice cut through the panicked haze in her brain. He was suddenly there beside her, his hand keeping her steady as the room swayed. “Where the hell have you been, Crawford?”

  “He—he—just appeared. From smoke!” Jess stammered. Her knees turned rubbery.

  Ty helped her to sit in the camp chair. “Take it easy, Jess. This is James Crawford. He’s a vampire.”

  She jumped back to her feet. “A vampire? What’s he doing here? I thought you said you need me to be protected from vampires.” She turned her venom on the vampire. “Where’s my brother? What’ve you done with Riley?”

  Ty’s heavy hand pressed her back to sitting in the chair. “Different sort of vampire. First we need to get that bleeding stopped.” He glared at Crawford. “Stop drooling, dammit. Can’t you see she’s shook up enough? And you didn’t answer me, where the hell have you been? Where’s Riley?”

  Crawford eyed her for a moment, as if choosing his words carefully before he spoke, then looked at Ty. “I transported him to headquarters.”

  “I said to stay here until I got back.” Ty produced a roll of gauze and a cleaning wipe and started to tend to her hand. The alcohol in the wipe stung. Jess sucked in a whistling breath through her teeth.

  “We wer
e attacked. One full vamp, three Thralls. I’ve got a couple of them secured. Thought we could take them back to the commander for—” Crawford’s gaze landed her once more “—questioning.”

  Ty bandaged her hand quickly and efficiently. “Fine,” he muttered. “But she’s coming with us.”

  “I am?”

  Jess glanced at Crawford long enough to see him shaking his head at Ty behind her back, before he abruptly stopped and gave her a saccharine-sweet smile, as if he were a choir boy rather than a bloodsucking vampire.

  “If that’s where Riley is, then you’d better take me, too.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” Crawford hedged. “Commander doesn’t like outsiders showing up at headquarters uninvited.”

  “Then perhaps you’d better get clearance,” Ty growled. “If they’ve found this place, then we can’t leave her here.”

  “You’re not leaving me anywh—”

  They talked right over the top of her as if she’d said nothing at all. “It might be better for him to interrogate them here,” Crawford said. “Keeps them from being able to transport into headquarters later on.”

  “I thought Thralls couldn’t transport.”

  “They can’t.”

  “Excuse me! But I’d like to know what the hell you are talking about!” Both Ty and Crawford stopped midsentence and stared at her. She was panting, her breath fast and angered.

  Ty tried to put a placating hand on her shoulder, but Jess shook it off. “Look, I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, I’ve been yanked out of my classroom and I still haven’t gotten anyone to tell me exactly when I get to see my brother. If someone doesn’t start spilling answers soon, I might be forced to call the police.”

  The men looked at one another for a second. “You want the truth?” Ty asked, his face deadpan.

  “Of course I want the truth!”

  “He’s one of the good vampires,” Ty said, jerking his thumb in Crawford’s direction. “There were no animal attacks. A group of bad vampires out here on the peninsula killed my students and nearly your brother. We’re trying to find out where they are and root them out.”